Scouting around … Dwight McElroy could see some significant playing time next year with Northwestern Oklahoma State. The Chouteau basketball All-Stater signed with the Rangers on Wednesday.

The Rangers, who play in the Sooner Athletic Conference, were 12-17 this past season, and nine players averaged 10 minutes or more on the floor for coach Andrew Brown.

Four players averaged in double figures scoring, and one — 6-6 Jeremy Felton — graduates. The leading rebounders averaged only six per game, and one — 6-5 Thiago Guilherme — is graduating.

McElroy, listed at 6-4, averaged 13.5 points and 10.9 rebounds over his 100-game, four-year career with the Wildcats. …

They’re just two days away from dropping  the green flag at Salina Highbanks Speedway. The 25-week racing season opens Saturday. Once they begin rolling, it will be an all-out, all-summer sprint. Mostly, the track will operate on Saturday nights, but there are two Friday sprint races scheduled. Gates open at 5 p.m. Saturday, with the first race scheduled for 7 p.m.

And what’s an opening night without a musical extravaganza? Area favorite Travis Kidd will be performing in the Finish Line restaurant following the races. …

Danny Morgan is in his 38th season as the head coach of the Okmulgee baseball Bulldogs. He has accomplished much in his career, one that includes induction into the Oklahoma Coaches Association Hall of Fame and a turn as the head coach of the U.S. Junior Olympics baseball team.

He is a popular and personable individual, as evidenced by his election to the presidency of the Oklahoma Coaches Association in 1989, a rare occurrence for a baseball coach.

Although he talks readily and excitedly about his sport, he seldom mentions one of the most significant — and harrowing — periods in his life.

He stared down the most fearsome of opponents, beaten the most frightful of antagonists.

He struck out cancer.

In 2002, he was diagnosed with bladder cancer.

Doctors blamed it on his longtime fixation on smokeless tobacco.

During a casual conversation that covered a plethora of topics the other day, Morgan quietly opened up about his confrontation with cancer.

“I was about as scared as I’ve ever been,” he said.

But he fought. Through surgery. Through rehabilitation. Through a change in lifestyle.

“I have not dipped since,” he said.

He embraced the mantra: “I have cancer. It don’t have me. I have it. I will control it.”

And he did. He proudly, humbly says that he has been “cancer free for two years.”

The survival has had profound effects on his life.

“It has made me more mellow,” he says. “Growing up, I was something of a hot head. I have calmed down a little.

“Also, it has made me appreciate my family. My daughters. My wife.”

Morgan has become a quiet, yet strong opponent of smokeless tobacco.

“I’m not a big, outspoken person with it,” he said. “I don’t go out and testify. But the people around me, the kids I see, I try to tell them you need to stay away from that stuff because it’ll cause cancer.

“I don’t let our kids do that. I tell them that it’s not acceptable. Then I try to tell them what will happen.” …

Rick Ott, the Inola girls basketball coach  who won his 500th career game in February and lost his job in March, has landed in his hometown of Checotah.

Ott will take over the girls program at his alma mater. “It is a good feeling,” Ott said this week after accepting the position.

He played at Checotah under Hall of Fame coach Truman Dixon — “a father figure to me,” he said.

Inola has not announced a replacement for Ott, who completed his 31st year — including 12 at Inola — before his departure.

At Checotah, Ott will replace Mickey Duncan, who held the job for one semester. Duncan took over for Neil Hays, who left the job at midterm. ...

Adair’s Kevi Luper did not repeat as the NCAA Division I basketball leader in steals or scoring this year, but Tahlequah Sequoyah’s Angel Goodrich did set the pace in assists.

Luper, the Oral Roberts University junior all-star, ranked second in scoring at 23.8 and fifth in steals at 3.8. Goodrich, a 5-4 junior, averaged a nation-leading 7.4 assists for Kansas.

In 2007, Luper and Goodrich played in Oklahoma’s Best girls tournament in Tulsa. Goodrich was a senior and made her second straight all-tournament appearance. Luper suffered a broken arm during Adair’s first-round loss to Sapulpa. She returned the following year and turned in an all-tournament performance.